What brings me joy, three years later

I was looking through old photos and came across this picture of a journal page from 2023 titled “What Brings me Joy”. If I were to write this list again today it would be surprisingly similar. I can’t say I have been able to maintain these activities consistently in my life over the past three years, but they have entered and left as the contours of my life have shifted.

Today I would add some new items to the list:

• Watching the hummingbirds at the feeder on our back porch
• Tending to a wood burning stove in the winter
• The warmth and sincerity of a hug from my children

But what strikes me about the items on this list is their focus on presence and active engagement in life. Material acquisition, achieving status, pursuing societal ideals… these are notably absent. Because joy in life - real joy - is not found in those things. It is found in being engaged and present for the moment of your life that is here now, from being thoughtful and intentional about the act of being fully with what you are doing, and with what is most important to you.

A quote from Eugene Delacroix comes to mind regarding the value of presence and intention in action:

“Think of the blessings that await you, not of the emptiness that drives you to seek constant distraction. Think of having peace of mind and a reliable memory, of the self-control that a well-ordained life will bring, of health not undermined by endless concessions to the passing excesses which other people’s society entails, of uninterrupted work, and plenty of it.”

— Eugene Delacroix